Cancer care is advancing quickly, but access to diagnosis, treatment and support remains deeply uneven. In this episode of Connecting Citizens to Science, Professor Eva Kantelhardt and Professor Richard Sullivan discuss equity in global oncology, exploring how cancer systems can be strengthened through fair financing, better data, locally led research, patient voice and approaches that reflect the realities of different health systems and communities.

In this episode:

Prof. Dr. Eva J. Kantelhardt – Professor of Global and Planetary Health; Gynaecologist, Martin-Luther-University Halle (Saale), Germany

Professor Eva J. Kantelhardt is Professor of Global and Planetary Health and a gynaecologist at Martin-Luther-University Halle in Germany. Her work focuses on cancer care in sub-Saharan Africa, bringing together population health, community involvement, primary health care, diagnostic and treatment services, and survivorship care. Her research and implementation work focuses on prevention, early detection and care, with particular attention to locally appropriate and culturally accepted approaches.

Professor Richard Sullivan – Professor of Cancer & Global Health, & Director, Institute of Cancer Policy and Director, Centre for Conflict & Health Security at King’s College London

Professor Richard Sullivan is Professor of Cancer and Global Health at King’s College London, where he is Director of the Institute of Cancer Policy and Director of the Centre for Conflict & Health Security. His work focuses on cancer services and systems, from surgical capacity building to national cancer planning reforms. He works with cancer healthcare professionals, patient organisations, policymakers and cancer planners, and is currently leading the World Bank Group cancer strategy.

Useful links

• Centre for Conflict & Health Security
• Institute of Cancer Policy

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Follow Connecting Citizens to Science on your usual podcast platform or YouTube to hear more about current research and debates within global health and development.

The podcast cuts across disciplines, including health systems strengthening, gender and intersectionality, tropical diseases (NTDs, TB, Malaria), maternal and child healthcare (antenatal and postnatal care), mental health and wellbeing, vector-borne diseases, climate change and co-production approaches.

If you would like your project or programme to feature in an episode or miniseries, get in touch with the producers of Connecting Citizens to Science, the SCL Agency.

Weight loss drugs are increasingly dominating headlines, but should they instead be understood as obesity management medicines?

This episode of Connecting Citizens to Science explores the growing global debate surrounding GLP-1 medicines, obesity as a complex chronic disease, and the wider implications for health systems, equity and access across different global contexts. The discussion examines the benefits these medicines may offer beyond weight reduction, alongside concerns around affordability, regulation, stigma and widening inequalities between those who can access treatment safely and those who cannot.

In this episode:

Dr Fatima Cody Stanford - Associate Professor of Medicine and Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital.

Dr Fatima is an obesity medicine physician-scientist whose work focuses on obesity as a chronic disease, cardiometabolic health and improving equitable access to evidence-based care. Alongside her clinical and research work, she contributes to national and international policy discussions through roles including the Lancet Commission on Obesity and the 2025 US Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee, while also mentoring underrepresented researchers through NIH-funded programmes.

Dr Swarup K. Chakrabarti - Consulting Director at Biotech Consulting Services.

Dr Swarup is a biomedical scientist and translational research professional with experience spanning academia, biotechnology and interdisciplinary human health research across India and the United States. His work has explored inflammation, metabolic disease and the wider societal impact of GLP-1 therapies, including questions around long-term health outcomes and access in lower-resource settings.

• The Impact of Weight Loss Drugs on Health and Society in India | Biores Scientia

Want to hear more podcasts like this?

Follow Connecting Citizens to Science on your preferred podcast platform or YouTube to hear more about current research and debates within global health and development.

The podcast cuts across disciplines, including health systems strengthening, gender and intersectionality, tropical diseases (NTDs, TB, Malaria), maternal and child healthcare (antenatal and postnatal care), mental health and wellbeing, vector-borne diseases, climate change and co-production approaches.

If you would like your project or programme to feature in an episode or miniseries, get in touch with the producers of Connecting Citizens to Science, the SCL Agency.

In this second part of our two-part finale on gender justice, the focus shifts from understanding gender as a system to what it means to act on that understanding in practice.

Building on Part 1, the conversation explores how to move beyond gender awareness towards more gender-responsive and gender-transformative approaches. Our guests reflect on the role of power, intersectionality and context, and why frameworks, participation and reflexivity matter for ethical and effective work.

The episode reflects on the practical challenges of applying gender frameworks in real-world settings, including how language, framing and collaboration shape what is possible in different contexts. We close by emphasising the importance of connecting gender across research agendas and movements, particularly in a world shaped by overlapping crises.

In this episode:

Ishrat Jahan - Research Fellow at the Centre for Gender and Sexual and Reproductive Health at BRAC James P. Grant School of Public Health in Dhaka, Bangladesh.

Ishrat’s research focuses on the intersection of gender, health, and environmental issues. Ishrat is involved in national and international projects exploring the impact of climate change on women’s health, adaptive practices in marginalised communities, and Global South-led curricula in higher education.

Dr Rosemary Morgan - Associate Professor, Department of International Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

Dr. Morgan is recognised as a specialist in gender analysis in health and health systems research, interventions, and programs and has published 90 peer-reviewed journal articles. With a focus on women’s health and wellbeing, her research explores methods for gender analysis and examines how gender inequities influence health outcomes and health systems, using qualitative approaches to center lived experiences and challenge structural inequalities. Dr. Morgan co-directs the Gender and Health Summer Institute and coordinates the Gender and Health Certificate at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Selima Sara Kabir - Sr Research Associate, BRAC James P Grant School of Public Health

Selima is a transdisciplinary, mixed-methods researcher and educator. She holds an MPH from the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, and her research lies at the intersections of gender, health systems and policy, digital cultures, and social justice. Since 2019, she has led and contributed to interdisciplinary projects exploring relationships, care, and health equity in low- and middle-income country contexts to Global South-led scholarship on gender and transformation.

Useful links:

• Understanding Gender as a System Part 1
• Art and Activism for Gender Justice
• Disability and Gender Justice
• Allyship in Gender Justice
• Gender Backlash and the Erosion of Everyday Rights
• Tackling Gender Backlash During Crises
• Gender and Equity ensuring women, and children survive.
• Countering Backlash - Reclaiming Gender Justice

Want to hear more podcasts like this?

Follow Connecting Citizens to Science on your usual podcast platform or YouTube to hear more about current research and debates within global health and development.

The podcast cuts across disciplines, including health systems strengthening, gender and intersectionality, tropical diseases (NTDs, TB, Malaria), maternal and child healthcare (antenatal and postnatal care), mental health and wellbeing, vector-borne diseases, climate change and co-production approaches.

If you would like your project or programme to feature in an episode or miniseries, get in touch with the producers of Connecting Citizens to Science, the SCL Agency.